Here Is The Reason These Teens Weren’t Arrested In Amarillo

Over the weekend, there was an incident that took place in Amarillo that had a lot of people up in arms. Now, before I say anything else, you should've felt that way when you read about what happened. You weren't wrong for feeling that way.

So what is the incident I'm talking about? It happened in City View where some teenage girls hopped in a car and were cruising around the neighborhood. In their adventures, they reportedly hit two vehicles in the neighborhood before rolling the car they were in.

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What really got people upset was the fact that there was allegedly alcohol involved in the accident. Let's start with the fact they were underage and drinking. That alone typically gets you a ticket. Even then, that alone wasn't the upsetting thing for most people.

It was the fact that after all of that, and suspicion of alcohol being a part of the accident, that police just released the teens to their parents and didn't haul them off to jail. The amount of comments I saw were astounding.

I thought it was a bit strange as well, because anyone else I felt would've been arrested on the spot and taken in. Here's why the girls were not.

Police have a tendency to release juveniles back to their parents rather than take them into the station for a full booking and jail. It's not that they aren't charged, the situation is just handled differently.

Sgt. Carla Burr told NewsChannel 7, "Juvenile arrests are different than adult arrests. They don’t automatically go to jail, even if the charge is a felony." She went on to explain further that they don't make the decision on scene. If they're told they can't be booked at that time, they'll release them to the parents.

Now things are a little different if it's a violent crime, or someone is severely injured or even killed. Then they'll get taken in regardless, but this explains why these girls were left to their parents after the incident.